Hiawatha Bicycling Club meeting minutes
Board of Directors Meeting 7:00 pm March 6, 2018
Location: Have Fun Biking
1321 E 66th Street Suite 102
Richfield, MN 55423
Board members present (5): Dan Robinson, Barry Cole, John Johnston III, Mark Kleczewski, and Marty Rosenstein
Board members absent (2): Jack Soltis, Theresa Ditter
Meeting was called to order at 7:04 pm
The Feburary meeting minutes were approved. It was noted that the $950 in advertising expense was not itemized.
Feb 20 Special Board Meeting Update
Since there were no meeting minutes from the special TDA pricing meeting of Feb 20, it is included here. On Feb 20 the board approved TDA pricing: $30 for all until July 18 when the price is $45 for all. Riders under 18 are free.
Treasurer’s Report - Mark
Mark commented on the difficulty of distinguishing club and TDA revenue sources. Mark suggested that one approach is for TDA to have a separate treasurer. Mark will contact Greg S to discuss this possibility. The amount of $5k was moved from the reserve fund to TCF checking account. The major expense for the month was ~$1k for LAB insurance.
Jersey Decision - All
The members discussed the results of the ride leader breakfast. The board confirmed the vote at the ride leader breakfast that the Etoile du Nord award for the 2016 and 2017 will be a gift certificate in the amount of $50 in lieu of the Palamasino jerseys that were never delivered. After that the members discussed the future of jersey options for the club being aware that there is a TDA jersey, a potential club jersey, and possibly an Etoile du Nord jersey. Fully aware that 3 jersey awards are excessive and that this is a complex subject, the board agreed to revisit this in April. Dan will contact Leon in his capacity as head ride leader to get his view.
Marketing Report – Marty
John Z, Leon, and Marty continue working to improve the content of the website.
Club Jersey
Marty shared with the club the email from the club jersey team members (Betty, Carmen, Bev) which asked for 1) permission to move forward with the full process including picking a vendor, working with graphic artist, sending a member survey, ordering jerseys and 2) approval to spend $400-$600 if necessary for a graphic artist. Because there was a wide range of views, each board member in turn presented their view of the process and their opinion on the degree of jersey committee autonomy that was appropriate. The board voted 4-1 to go ahead with the effort described in the memo but required biweekly reporting by the jersey committee. Dan will inform Betty of this decision.
Ease into Social Riding
Marty described his effort to initiate a program in conjunction with 110 Cycle to provide a class and 3 training rides before TDA that would bring new riders into TDA who were unfamiliar with social/group riding. The board members were generally supportive but had questions including whether 110 Cycle or HBC owned this activity. The consensus was for Marty to do more in developing this program while Dan investigated the #1 issue, insurance.
Membership Report – John J III
John noted that the club added 4 new members raising the total HBC membership to 208. The board unanimously approved making Harold Harum as a life member. He was a club founder but was no longer riding and so was dropped from the membership role.
Led by John J, the board also discussed other options such as making all founding members life members and making all riders over some age life members. Since the demographics and definition of these categories was not well defined, any other decision was tabled for the April meeting. John J will try to identify the members included in these categories.
TDA
Dan showed the new TDA jersey design to the board. It was the result of Dan working with Amy and designers at D’Amico’s. Dan and Greg S sought the boards opinion before Russ has it made by Palamasino. Three of many observations were 1) that “Hiawatha Bicycling Club” should replace the web address 2) Tour D’Amico and HBC were in a small dark font and hard to see, 3) it might be nice to have July 4 independence day captured on the jersey.
Other business
Dan received a request from the YWCA for volunteers for a triathalon. It was agreed that it was appropriate to put that on the facebook site and club email.
There was a discussion of the $550 marketing expense. It was not clear to any of the board the exact details of how it was spent but it was felt that these were for ads for TDA and the club in the Bike/Hike Guides, possibly for both Minnesota and Iowa. A number noted that they have never seen this guide in stores and wonder if it was the best marketing method for the club. Mark will contact Russ and get details on this expense, how the guide is marketed, and what is the readership. Also expresssed was the need for greater board involvement in the use of the marketing budget. This will be revisited in the April meeting.
Marty raised the issue of additional errors and omissions insurance for the board. Dan commented that it is offered by the LAB but it is very expensive. John commented that his personal insurance covered him to the same level as LAB. There was no conclusion and this may be revisited in April.
Next Meetings:
The next board meeting is April 17, 2018 at HFB at 7:00 pm. This will be shortly after the ride leader meeting on April 14 and the volunteer banquet on April 15.
The meeting was adjourned at 9:06 pm. Submitted by Barry Cole for Jack Soltis
